Future Leaders of the Wizarding World
by WhatWldMrsWeasleyDo
Summary: Cross-over. Written for my daughter's tenth birthday. Alex Russo and Harry Potter's daughter meet at a conference for young female wizards.


WRITTEN FOR MY DAUGHTER'S 10TH BIRTHDAY:

Future Leaders of the Wizarding World

A Harry Potter and Wizards of Waverley Place Crossover Fanfic

"Future Leaders of the Wizarding world?" Justin Russo smiled to himself and tapped the gold envelope in an apparently nonchalant way against his thigh.

His family did not react.

"So, a letter came today. Magically." He paused. He was ignored. "It's got a crest on it. It's from an organisation called 'Future Leaders of the Wizarding World'. I wonder who that could be for?" He tapped his chest with the side of the envelope.

"Oh great!" Alex muttered without looking up from her make-up mirror. "You're gonna be a leader? That's the Wizarding World doomed then. Remind me to emigrate to another planet when it gets to be 'The Future.'"

"There used to be an annual conference called that," their father, Jerry, mused.

"Wow! Cool!" Max said.

Justin smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad someone appreciates ..."

"Another planet? Can I come with you, Alex?" He jumped up and down in front of her.

Without moving, she flicked her gaze to him briefly, before concentrating on her lip gloss again. "Nah," she said.

Jerry paused in his important job of scraping the grease out of his fingernails. "It was some girls-only thing, though."

"Uh. What?" Justin looked more closely at the letter in his hand. He gawped. "Max. When you figure out which planet you're going to, you won't forget to take me along will you?"

"Give your sister her letter, Justin," said Jerry.

"I don't think that's a very good ..." but before Justin could voice his concerns, Alex had snatched it from him and opened it.

"Yay! Dad! A meeting for young witches from all over the world. That's so sexist, it should say 'young female wizards'."

"Well, in some other countries they still say 'witches' for female wizards, in England for example ..."

"Three days in a purpose built complex with a spa, catering by top chefs and House Elves, evening entertainment to include a live concert by Draco and the Malfoys!"

"I hate you," Justin grumbled. "How can I be excluded on the grounds of my gender?"

"Payback for centuries of oppression," Alex smirked.

"But I didn't ..."

Alex raised a finger "Shush! Future Leader of the Wizarding World thinking through her wardrobe options here!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in Godric's Hollow, another young female wizard was reading her own conference invitation. Lily Luna Potter sighed. Yet another set of new people to meet, all of whom would have heard of her father and have unreasonable expectations of her.

It didn't say anything about Quidditch on the letter and playing that was the only thing she ever really wanted to do. Spas? Fancy food? She read down. A talk from a Dress Robes designer? Some cute boyband? Was this really what the organisers thought all girls were interested in? They had a lot to learn from the Muggle feminists. Aunt Hermione's Mum had told her about the Women's Movement. This was not looking like it was going to be part of that.

Lily showed her mother the letter.

"Oh, I went to that! It was great fun. I'm so glad they chose you." Ginny hugged her daughter, their long, red hair tangling together and then coming apart again as Lily tipped her head back.

"I'm not going, Mum. I've got to revise for my N.E.W.T.s ..."

"When I told you to do that last week, you said that you didn't need any qualifications for the Holyhead Harpies! It's an honour to be invited and you are going."

Her father thought she should go, too, but what made her mind up for her was her brother Albus Severus saying that a conference centre full of girls sounded like the most lame place on earth. Well, if her stupid brother thought it would be rubbish then it must be worth doing!

The night before she left, Harry beckoned her into his study. After locking and warding the door and putting up a Silencing Charm, he unlocked the old trunk in the corner.

"I want you to take very good care of this," he said. "It's been in our family for a very long time. I'm sure you won't need it at this conference, but I've learned that it's best to be prepared for anything."

Then he held up his arms. Lily couldn't see anything. She screamed as she realised that his hands had disappeared! Her father laughed, then with a swift arm movement, he vanished altogether! His head came back into view and bobbed around on it own, saying, "It's an Invisibility cloak."

"**The **Invisibility Cloak?"

"I had it when I was at school."

"You used it to defeat Voldemort."

"Do you want to borrow it?"

Lily nodded vigourously, too excited to speak.

"Then you'll have to catch me!" Harry said with a laugh before his head was gone again.

* * *

A lot of the teenage girls at the conference seemed to know each other already and, of the rest, most spoke in languages which Lily didn't know. She wished for the first time that Hogwarts taught languages. It would have been a good idea to have asked Auntie Fleur for a few basic french phrases, but it was too late now.

A pretty girl with dark hair and a cheeky grin broke away from the group with whom she had been chatting in fluent Spanish and tipped the contents of her plate onto Lily's, before winking at her and sauntering off to the buffet.

Lily looked down. Olive stones, chicken bones, fairy cakes with the frosting licked off. She felt her blood boil and she pulled out her wand as she stormed after the offending girl. She was glad her mother had taught her the Bat Bogey hex and had every intention of using it.

She spoke very clearly and loudly, though she didn't expect to be understood. She was pretty sure that her Weasley-red face and clenched fists would be eloquent enough. "What in Merlin's knicker drawer do you think you are doing?"

The dark girl turned slowly, casually and said in perfect English "Did you not want that?" Her accent was American. She raised an eyebrow. "You should have said." She waved her own wand over the plate and the detritus was gone.

Lily felt like hexing her anyway.

"Your plate looked a little empty. Here," she summoned a large cream-topped cake. "We can share this."

Lily wasn't sure how to feel. The cake looked good though.

"I'm Alex Russo. Who are you?"

Lily picked up a glass of fruit punch and downed it in one. She felt a lot better. She could choose to stay angry, but finally someone was speaking to her and she decided to make the most of that. "Pleased to meet you, Alex. I'm Lily Potter."

Alex laughed. "No relation."

"Huh?"

"No relation. Lily Potter, you said. Like 'Harry Potter', so I said ..."

"Oh, he's my Dad." Lily waited for one of the usual responses. Either this girl would want to talk about nothing else now, or she'd accuse Lily of being spoiled and stuck-up, or – in the worst cases – it would turn out that she had Death Eater relatives and Lily would be berated because some family member had died at Harry's hands.

Alex just paused. She froze for a moment in thought. Then she cocked one eyebrow and said, "Shall we steal the strawberry gateau as well, or will the chocolate be enough?"

They hid in a corner and ate themselves sick, then Healed each other in time for the first meeting. There were some welcoming speeches about making a better future together and an old witch in a green hat ("Matches her skin," Alex observed) told them all what they would be doing for the next three days.

"Just a few rules, I'm afraid, ladies," she said at the end. "No hexing each other and no destruction of property, I'm sure that goes without saying. No Apparating boys onto the conference site. This is designed to be a Empowerment exercise through bonding between females." Alex rolled her eyes. "Also, the area beyond the large oak door at the back of this Hall is out of bounds." Lily and Alex looked at each other.

"I've got an idea," Lily said. "I'll show you something after tea."

* * *

"Whatever they've got in there," said Alex, "it's got to be pretty cool if they don't want us knowing about it!"

It was midnight and they were in the Hall, under the Invisibility Cloak. They heard footsteps behind them and stopped talking. The green-faced witch from earlier was approaching. She raised her wand and muttered some spells at the door. When it opened, the girls slipped into the room behind her.

There was hardly anything in there, just a curved piece of pale wood standing upright in the middle of a stone floor. Lying down next to it was another, almost identical, piece. The old witch lifted this and brought them to meet at the top. Then she slid between the two planks.

Alex gasped loudly, but it didn't matter because the old green witch was no longer there to hear her. The second curved plank stayed upright. The two girls manoeuvred themselves round to the other side of the room, staying carefully under the cloak in case someone was watching them. The room was empty except for them and the two planks.

"That's really ..." Lily began, but she stopped, because there was a light fizzing noise, a pinkish spark and the witch re-appeared, stepping carefully between the wooden posts. The left-hand one clattered back to the ground. She took a notebook and a quill out of her sleeve and left the room, scribbling notes.

"We've got to ..." Alex began.

"That's not a very good idea. We don't know what's through there."

"She was OK. And we're young. We're bound to be able to run faster than she can."

"What if we can't get back?"

Alex had had enough of arguing, so she grabbed the cloak, yanking it off her new friend, and dashed for the centre of the room.

"Hey! Give that back! I'm supposed to take good care of it!"

There was a fizzing and a bright pink light, then prickly leaves which they pushed through, then Lily snatched the cloak back and shoved it in her pocket.

They were on a scrubby hillside at the edge of a city. There were no street lamps and it smelled rank. There was a crowd of strange, dirty people dressed in rags, gathered round a blazing fire. They were all pointing at the place where they had just seen a girl appear out of nowhere.

They were pointing at Alex. Lily thought about backing away, she was pretty sure that was what Alex would have done, but then she had a feeling that Alex would have been Sorted into Slytherin and Lily couldn't help being a Gryffindor.

"That be witchcraft," muttered one of the peasants.

There was general nodding agreement among the crowd. That was when Lily noticed that there was something in the middle of the bonfire that they were gathering around. It was a young woman. She gave an agonised scream, but then winked at the two girls and Lily remembered the History of Magic lesson where they had been told about the Medieval Witch burnings and how real witches had used Repelling Charms to keep themselves safe.

"Run!" Alex screamed at her, not a moment too soon. The crowd had started to charge towards them.

They thundered along, not knowing where they were going, but just knowing that they didn't want to stay there.

"We need a spell to get back to our own time," Alex panted.

"You know any?" Lily asked her.

"I don't pay attention during Magic lessons!" Alex managed to look disdainful even while she ran away, breathless and sweaty, from a murderous mob.

Lily hadn't paid as much attention in school as she should have done. She didn't think she needed to: most problems could be solved – she had found – with a mixture of _Expelliamus_ and _Finite Incantatum_. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and started randomly shouting out spells. _Lumos_ made a bright light appear, which just excited the mob behind them even more.

Neither of them ever knew which of the incantations had done it, but suddenly they found themselves stumbling, the air seemed to shimmer and they landed on concrete. The smell of the air improved considerably. They were between two buildings with big windows and shiny signs.

"Ooh! Stores!" said Alex.

She staggered to her feet.

"I don't know where we are," Lily said.

Alex shrugged. She was looking at a display of discounted 2010 calendars. "Well, we're back in the right time and that's all that matters," she replied. "You don't need to know where you're coming from to Apparate, just where you're going to."

"It's a shame all these shops are closed," Lily commented as they walked down the street.

"Maybe something's open."

"It's the middle of the night."

"All these prices are in pounds. I only have dollars on me, I hope you brought some money!"

"It's a good thing all these shops are closed," Lily corrected.

* * *

The next morning the shops were open, but the witches had returned to their conference. The street was busy with Muggles, all concentrating on getting bargains. One girl was day dreaming, though. While her sisters were arguing over whether there was such a things as 'too floral' when it came to skirts, she slipped out of New Look to check out the Dr Who calendars next door.

She zipped up her red and black coat as she crossed the space between the two buildings. She looked down at her feet on the concrete paving slabs and let her mind wander. She was just about to look up again, into the window display dominated by David Tennant, when she thought she caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was a shimmer, or a slight edge of something that wasn't there.

Although she knew how embarrassed her teenage sisters would be if they saw her, she dropped down onto her hands and knees and approached the thing she thought she'd almost seen. As she ran a hand over the rough ground, she thought she could feel something slippery.

Meanwhile, two dishevelled 'Future Leaders of the Wizarding world' made their sleepy way into breakfast.

"Great night," said Alex, nodding. "We should do that again."

Lily grinned in spite of herself. She yawned and patted her pocket, just to check. Then she stood frozen still. She put her hand in her pocket. It wasn't there. She tried another pocket, all her pockets, her sleeves ...

"Dad's gonna kill me!" she whispered.

"When I say that, I know perfectly well that my father has never killed anyone in his life. But when you say it, it sounds a bit more threatening." The pastry she'd picked up stopped on the way to Alex's mouth. She'd just noticed how very worried her new friend looked. "What did you do?"

"I've lost the Invisibility Cloak!" Lily hissed.


End file.
